


The Care and Keeping of Your Best Friends' Baby

by Just_here_for_a_laugh



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Baby Harry, Baby Harry Potter, Babysitting, Boys In Love, Cute, Domestic, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Established Sirius Black/Remus Lupin, Everything is Beautiful and Nothing Hurts, Fluff, Forehead Kisses, Happy Ending, Happy Remus Lupin, Happy Sirius Black, Implied Past Child Abuse, Lullabies, M/M, Mentions of past child abuse, Moony - Freeform, Nicknames, Padfoot - Freeform, Singing, Sirius Black as Padfoot, Sirius Black is a Good Sibling, Snuggling, Soft Boys, Tiny amount of angst, Very Minor, Worried Sirius Black, babysitting is hard, bathing a baby is not easy when they want to splash you, baths, cute baby, he's like one, minor injury, soft, very small mention though its just kind of implied, wolfstar
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-08
Updated: 2020-04-08
Packaged: 2021-03-01 18:21:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,403
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23551462
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Just_here_for_a_laugh/pseuds/Just_here_for_a_laugh
Summary: Remus and Sirius agree to look after baby Harry for a few days, how hard could it be?
Relationships: Remus Lupin & Harry Potter, Sirius Black & Harry Potter, Sirius Black/Remus Lupin
Comments: 10
Kudos: 142





	The Care and Keeping of Your Best Friends' Baby

“Everything will be fine Padfoot.” Remus assured his boyfriend. “It’s just three days, we’ve got this.” Sirius didn’t look so sure, but he nodded anyway. James and Lily were going to stay in the old Potter family cottage out in the country for a few days to celebrate their anniversary and take a rest from caring for Harry twenty-four hours a day. When they had asked Remus and Sirius to look after the baby, the two had agreed in a heartbeat. However, the willingness to do it and the confidence in their ability to do it did not exactly match up in the mind of one Sirius Black.

  
“I don’t know the first thing about babies Moony,” he sighed. Remus smiled.

  
“That’s not true; we see Harry all the time and you’re great with him.”

  
“Yeah, when I’m not responsible for his life!” Remus chuckled and put a hand on his partner’s shoulder.

  
“You’ll be fine. And so will he. Now come on, they’re gonna be here soon, help me finish setting up this playpen.” Remus smiled warmly and Sirius rolled his eyes, but he sat down and grabbed a screwdriver anyway. James and Lily had come by the previous day to drop off some of the things Harry would need beforehand so that Remus and Sirius could set them up before they had to keep their focus entirely on Harry. Sure enough just as they were tightening the last screws on the pen, there was a bright flash and James and Lily were standing with Harry in the floo.

  
“Hey guys!” James shouted, running over to tackle Sirius in a bear hug as Lily laughed and walked over to Remus, kissing him on the cheek. He did the same to her and the chubby giggling baby in her arms before she walked over to repeat the exchange with Sirius and James turned to now tackle Remus. After a few minutes of laughing and catching up on what had happened since they’d seen each other last, nearly a whole twenty hours which was frankly outrageous Sirius pointed out, they all started going over the details of what was going to happen with Harry. Once they were all satisfied, or more accurately once Remus and Lily were satisfied and James and Sirius were as satisfied as they could be, that everything was under control, the Potters handed over the baby and started to head out.

  
“We’ll be back before you know it.” Lily smiled from the floo. “I trust you.” Remus smiled brightly as he held Harry.

  
“We’ll be right here when you get back. Enjoy your trip, and make sure to actually relax!” He said with a pointed look at James. James in turn laughed nervously and ran his hand through his hair. Hesitating for a second, he dashed out of the floo and kissed Harry on the top of his head before running back and putting his arm around Lily. She laughed and gathered some floo powder from her bag.

  
“Bye you guys!” She called. Sirius and James both smiled a little nervously as Remus moved Harry’s hand back and forth to wave at his parents, and then the couple vanished as suddenly as they had arrived.

  
Remus shifted Harry to his hip and turned to Sirius with a grin. “See?” He said, “We’ve got this. Now come on, let’s show him those new toys we bought him!” The two played with the baby and the longer they cooed at him and laughed and played with the stuffed animals, the calmer Sirius became. This was exactly like every time they had been over to Godrick’s Hollow. The only difference now was that they didn’t have to share Harry with his parents or Peter, they could play with him all they wanted. Sirius loved it. Maybe he could convince James and Lily to do this more often.

  


  


  
After a while it was getting close to bedtime for Harry and they knew they had to start getting him ready. Remus stood up from where they had all been sitting on the floor and stretched. “Okay,” he sighed, “I’m gonna start mixing some formula and warming it up. Why don’t you come give him a bath.”

  
‘Okay,” Sirius cooed, still playing with the child’s hands. “Do you want to take a bath Harry? Get all nice and clean?” He tickled under Harry’s chin and got a delighted squeal in response. He grinned and picked him up, twirling him and flying him around like a quidditch player, earning him another squeal. “Let’s go get you cleaned up.” He turned to walk upstairs to their bathroom, but he heard the distinctive sound of the Lupin “What-Do-You-Think-You’re-Doing” Throat Clearing, so he turned back around. Remus raised an eyebrow at him and smiled.

  
“You weren’t about to put a one year old in the master bathtub were you?” He asked knowingly. Sirius scoffed awkwardly.

  
“No,” he lied, trying to think of where he was actually supposed to bathe Harry. Remus chuckled and walked into the kitchen as Sirius followed. They walked over to the counter and Remus pointed out the baby tub in the sink. Next to it was a bag with towels and washcloths and cups. “Ohhhh,” Sirius hummed in recognition as he remembered what James had said about washing the baby in the sink and using the cups to pour water on his head to wash his hair. “Right, I remember this, okay, I’ve got it.” Remus smiled and went over to the pantry to grab the formula. Sirius got the temperature right and filled up the little basin. Then he undressed Harry and gently put him in the water. Harry cooed and smiled and Sirius smiled back at him. “There you go!” He said proudly, “Perfect.” And it was. For a minute.

  
As Sirius kept one hand on Harry’s back and tried to read the tiny writing on the baby shampoo about how much to use and to see if it said anywhere whether this was just shampoo or if it was also regular soap, he felt a splash hit his abdomen. He looked down at a giggling Harry in confusion for a very brief moment before he saw what was happening.

  
“Oh no you don’t,” He started as Harry swung his arms down into the water again, creating an even bigger splash this time. He grinned with glee and laughed, laughing only more when Sirius tried to grab the towel and dropped the soap. Harry kept splashing as Sirius held up a hand to block the water and tried to grab the bottle of soap with his foot. “Moony!” he called, “I think I need some help!” Remus turned around and couldn’t help but laugh. He walked over to his struggling boyfriend and their giddy young charge and picked up the soap from the floor. “Thank you,” said Sirius, as he finally just tried to grab the pudgy arms that were wreaking so much havok. He held them to Harry’s side and the child giggled in response, thinking it to be a game. Sirius sighed in relief and Remus once again laughed. He squeezed some of the soap onto his hand and dipped the other in the water. The two worked together to bathe the baby, Remus gently lathering the soap onto him and into his hair, and Sirius working to pin down the squirming child without being too rough. This was working well until it came time to rinse him. As Remus put his hand just in front of the baby’s hairline and poured the warm water over his head, Harry managed to wriggle one of his arms free of Sirius’ light grasp and grab the cup Remus was holding. Taking the young werewolf by surprise Harry jerked it from his hand and sent water flying. He tossed the cup as well, launching it across the kitchen and under the table. Suddenly soaking wet, Remus dashed to get the cup and nearly slipped on the puddle of soapy water beneath his feet. Sirius barked out a laugh in spite of himself, quickly moving to clasp a hand over his mouth and in doing so let go of Harry’s other arm. The baby immediately tried to splash more water out at his godfather because the first time had been so fun, and this time it was Remus who was laughing at Sirius. Soon all three of the boys were laughing, Remus and Sirius at each other and Harry at them both. They had barely caught their breath when Sirius smelled something and jerked his head up.

  
“Something is burning.” He said with alarm, and Remus’ eyes widened.

  
“The formula!” he shouted as he ran to the stove where a small saucepan sat on one of the front burners. Once again Sirius nearly collapsed laughing as Remus tried to prevent further disaster.

  


  


Once they had cleaned up the various messes and finally dried and fed Harry with a new batch of formula, it was time to put him down to bed. Surprisingly, he fell asleep very quickly. He had had a long day with his parents rushing around making last minute preparations, the excitement of the trip in the floo, an afternoon of playing with his godparents, and the hectic bath in the sink. He was tired, and he wasn’t the only one. As soon as Harry was asleep Sirius crashed his head onto his boyfriend’s shoulder.

  
“I thought you said this would be easy.” He grumbled into Remus’ shirt. Remus lightly rubbed his boyfriend’s back and grinned.

  
“No, I said we could handle it.” Sirius groaned and pushed his head harder against Remus’ shoulder. The werewolf tried to suppress his laughter by lightly shushing Sirius. The mop of long black hair nuzzled him in response and mumbled “I’m going to bed.” Remus hummed in agreement and walked them over to the bed. The couple had set up the crib in their room so that if anything happened they were sure to hear it. In reality it didn’t do very much as the men had the hearing of a dog and a wolf and would have picked up any disturbance anyway, but it helped keep their minds at ease. The trio had been asleep for a few hours when loud cries started coming from the crib. Both men jumped up and rushed over to the baby.

  
“I thought Lily said he sleeps through the night now.” Remus thought aloud in confusion.

  
“She did.” Sirius replied, “there must be something wrong.” He reached into the crib and picked up Harry. “What’s wrong Prongslet?” Harry only cried louder. Sirius held him closer despite his auditory sensors begging him not to. “Merlin,” he sighed, “he got Evans’ lungs that’s for sure.” Remus nodded as he took Harry into his arms, hoping maybe he could calm the child better. Once Sirius was sure Remus had him securely he stepped back and shook his head. “Haven’t heard anybody shout that loud since I stole her potions essay fifth year and flew around the quidditch field so she couldn’t snatch it back.” Remus snorted at the memory as he bounced a still tearful Harry.

  
“I don’t think I’d heard anyone shout that loud ever. But you’re right,” he looked down at the baby in his arms, “he just about takes the cake.”

  
The couple investigated every ailment they could think of but turned up nothing. He didn’t need a new diaper, he wasn’t hungry, he wasn’t cold, he wasn’t hot, he clearly wasn’t sleepy; they had nothing. Exhausted, Remus sat down in the armchair in the corner of their room, setting Harry on his lap. Suddenly, the baby sniffled and the crying stopped. Both men froze, afraid to move and break the silence. Carefully, Sirius crept over to the chair and sat down in front of it. Harry cooed at him and then back at Remus. The two men stared at the baby and then at one another. “Is this what you wanted Harry?” Sirius whispered, bringing a hand up to meet little grasping fingers that had been reaching for him. Harry happily babbled as Sirius continued to play with his hands.

  
“I think he just didn’t like being in an unfamiliar crib.” Remus reasoned in a whisper.

  
“He didn’t have an issue earlier.”

  
“Yeah but he was really tired then and he could see us.” Remus said. “He probably woke up and started crying when he didn’t know where he was.” Sirius nodded as he watched Harry who was growing sleepier by the minute. That made sense. “He just wanted to sleep somewhere familiar.”

  
“Like on your lap.” Sirius grinned as he watched Harry struggle to keep his eyes open. Remus chuckled quietly.

  
“Apparently.” Remus pulled the baby back gently so that the upper part of Harry’s body was resting against his own and leaned them both back in the chair. “Once he’s been out for a while we’ll try and put him back in the crib.” He said with a yawn.

  
“Mhmm,” Sirius hummed, suppressing a smile. He could tell that both his godson and his boyfriend would be passed out in that chair any moment. Sure enough, a few minutes later he looked up from stroking Harry’s soft dark hair to see Remus fast asleep. Sirius rolled his eyes with a grin, shifted into Padfoot, and curled up at their feet. He was out like a light in a matter of seconds.

  


  


The next morning Sirius woke up to warm sunlight and soft singing. He perked one ear up and listened. It was Remus singing to Harry as he carried him from room to room downstairs. Sirius didn’t know the song but he’d heard Lily sing it to the baby before as well, something about a mockingbird and maybe a looking glass. He laid still with his eyes still closed, simply listening. When he finished the lullaby Remus started singing another. Sirius had never heard this one but he thought it sounded lovely. This one was slower and it seemed to be about having peace all through the night, and once Remus started singing another verse of the same tune in Welsh Sirius realized it must be something that Remus’ mom had sung to him as a child. He smiled. He did feel peace, at least for this perfect moment.

  
A little bit later Sirius trotted downstairs and into the kitchen.

  
“Look who it is Bambi,” Remus whispered to the baby. Harry squealed when he saw the big fluffy dog he loved so much and even louder when Padfoot licked his cheek as Remus lowered the baby down to see him.

  
“No,” Remus smiled, “no licking the baby.” He said with no heat behind the words. Sirius shifted back into his usual form and stood up.

  
“But he’s so cute,” he grinned as he kissed his boyfriend good morning. “I just can’t help it.” He bent down and tickled Harry under his chin, cooing as the baby giggled.

  
“He is,” Remus agreed, handing the baby over to Sirius, “so why don’t you take Mr. Cuteness and I’ll finish up breakfast.” Sirius took the baby and smiled. Then, taking care to look Remus in the eye and grinning mischievously, he licked the top of Harry’s head. Harry shrieked a laugh with glee and Remus let out a playful sigh. “What am I going to do with you?” he asked, turning to the stove to start the eggs. Sirius grinned.

  
“Well, for starters you can try not to poison me with whatever it is you’re trying to make over there.” Sirius laughed as he just barely dodged a dish towel that had come sailing across the kitchen in response. Remus smirked as he heard Sirius cry out “Run Harry, we’re under attack from Uncle Moony!” and dash into the living room with him. The baby squealed as Sirius ran them all around the downstairs until Remus called out that breakfast was ready.

  


  


The rest of the morning went well. After they finished eating they walked out into Remus’ garden and watched the bees buzz around the flowers. Remus pointed out a bunny and as he watched both Harry and Sirius’ transfixed faces he wasn’t sure whether they wanted to chase it or pet it. They took a walk through the neighborhood and after more than a few stops to let neighbors coo at the cute baby, they decided to walk back home and get Harry out of the sun.

  
Once they were home however, it looked like things might take a turn for the worse. Remus was in the kitchen looking for the soft baby food Harry ate for lunch instead of the formula and Sirius was playing with the baby in the living room. Suddenly, Remus heard something fall followed by a loud cry from Harry. He raced into the living room only to see Harry and Sirius staring at each other on the floor; the crying had stopped as suddenly as it had started.

  
“What happened?” Remus asked out of breath. He noticed that his boyfriend was doing something to the baby’s arm, almost like he was drawing a pattern. Harry was looking back and forth between the arm and Sirius like he was trying to figure something out. Without taking his eyes off the baby Sirius answered,

  
“He crawled over to the table end table and yanked the cord on the clock. I grabbed him in time to pull him out of the way but the noise shook him up a bit” Sure enough their new digital clock was on the ground. Luckily the very reason Harry had been able to send it falling so easily was that it was rather light, so he knew that there had probably been very little real danger, but Remus’ head still spun. Sirius continued, still sitting perfectly still save his hand, and his face was expressionless. “The problem is a piece did fly off when it hit the ground and managed to knick his leg. Could you go get a band aid?” Remus went into the bathroom and returned with a wet washcloth and a bandage like he was on autopilot. He sat down and came out of his daze somewhat as he started to wipe the cut. Harry started to turn his head to look at what Remus was doing but Sirius made a whisping noise that put Harry’s attention back on him.

  
“What are you doing?” Remus finally asked.

  
“I’m redirecting his attention.” Sirius answered, eyes still fixed on Harry. “The changing sensation on his arm from the pattern I’m drawing keeps his mind off the pain, and so does the focus it takes to try to figure out just what it is I’m doing.” Remus nodded, still a little confused.

  
“Oh.” he said blankly.

  
“I used to do this for Regulus. When he was little, you know?” Sirius said, finally looking at Remus. “When he started talking and got old enough that it didn’t confuse him anymore I started drawing animals and stuff and had him try to guess what it was I was drawing to distract him that way.” He smiled slightly. Remus nodded again, this time sincerely. “It was kind of funny, I hadn’t really thought about that in a while, but I just did it to Harry immediately. It was like instinctive or something.” He looked down at Harry again, drawing patterns on his arm all the while. “I will say it’s a lot easier to do this while someone else deals with the injury, instead of trying to do both.” Remus saw Sirius smile sadly, for just a second, before he brought up a grin and bright eyes, exclaiming “All done!” as Remus finally finished putting the band aid on. Harry grinned back and Sirius threw his arms in the air dramatically, sweeping the baby into a hug. He rocked the giggling baby back and forth and peppered him with kisses, and Remus watched with a small sad smile of his own.

  


  


Later that evening, Sirius set up the baby bath in the bath tub.

  
“Okay mister.” He said, looking at Harry sitting on the bath mat. “This time we are gonna do this my way.” Harry grinned and his godfather was struck with recognition as to just what that face meant. “Ohhh,” he said as he heaved the baby up and into the tub, “you, little one, are going to make an excellent Marauder one day.” Harry babbled and Sirius sat back on his heels. “But not this day!” he declared theatrically, earning him a laugh from his audience of one. “Today your splashing ways shall be vanquished.” Harry giggled and threw his arms down, splashing water up. Not high enough up, however, to reach Sirius over the walls of the tub.

  
“Ha ha!” Sirius laughed triumphantly, partly out of drama for the baby’s benefit and partly out of genuine satisfaction with his own solution. There was no crime in doing both he thought to himself. His perfect solution reached a hiccup however when he struggled to maneuver his arms efficiently across the tub walls. They were high and cutting into his biceps, and having to reach out to get to Harry was less than ideal. It would have been much easier were he in the tub too, but the problem was that he had worked out the temperature for the baby bath by running the water into the larger bath. He’d also absentmindedly secured the drain out of habit and when it didn’t come over the edge of the baby tub he hadn’t bothered to let it out.

  
He considered his options for the moment and decided he didn’t care all that much. So, Sirius simply got into the tub of water, figuring if he let it out now the bottom would still be wet anyway. Sitting in the tub was much easier and Harry liked it better as well. With Sirius in front of him he could play with his hair and they could make faces at each other. Remus walked in just as Sirius was trying to teach Harry how to do the iconic face from the rock band Kiss. He let out a laugh at the pair in the tub, both of whom looked up and grinned at him.

  
“Wasn’t the point of bathing him in here so you didn’t get wet Padfoot?” Remus chuckled.

  
“Yeah,” Sirius conceded, “but now it's my choice.”

  
“In your clothes?” the werewolf giggled.

  
“Why not?” Sirius grinned. Remus rolled his eyes and sighed playfully. Sirius, who was at this point pretty much just playing with the baby in the water as opposed to actually accomplishing anything, asked “Care to join us?”

  
“What,” Remus asked, “in the bath?”

  
“Yeah.” Sirius smiled. Remus leaned back against the sink and crossed his arms.

  
“Why would I get into a bath fully clothed with you and a baby?” Sirius shrugged with a smile that was just a little bit sly because he knew he was about to get what he wanted.

  
“Because it's fun.” Came his answer, and Remus just looked at him. Sure enough, that lopsided incredulous smile, the one that made Sirius’ heart flutter every time, spread across Remus’ face as he shook his head lightly and took off his jumper. Walking over in his undershirt and jeans he ruffled Harry’s hair before climbing into the tub behind Sirius.

  
“Why do I let you talk me into these things?” He asked as he sat down in the shallow water and Sirius leaned back against him.

  
“Because you love me.” He said smugly.

  
“That I do.” Remus answered, kissing the top of Sirius’ head. The two sat together in shallow water and sopping wet clothes, making faces at the baby and splashing him right back when he instigated a water battle, and neither could think of anywhere else they would rather be.

  


  


That night, the two laid in the darkness and listened to the child breathe. They had gotten him to go to sleep in the crib without any trouble and it looked like this night would go on quietly.

  
“Hey Moons,” SIrius whispered.

  
“Yeah Pads?”

  
“Do you think he’s got like super smell?”

  
“What?” Remus laughed quietly.

  
“You know, how like James has a really good sense of smell cause he’s a deer? Do you think Prongslet is gonna get that?”

  
“Pads, I have no idea.” he answered, and Sirius could hear the smile in his voice. He smiled back and asked,

  
“Do you think we can test it? That we can set up an experiment or something to see how good his sense of smell is?” Sirius grinned, he could feel the bed shake lightly as Remus tried not to laugh and wake up Harry.

  
“I’m not letting you experiment on a child.” Sirius let out a dramatic but entirely lighthearted sigh.

  
“Nothing dangerous, I just wanna see if he can find a busciutt if I hide it in the living room!”

  
“No!” Remus laughed, both of them freezing in wait of a cry. When none came they both dissolved into quiet giggles again. “You will not be running any experiments dangerous or otherwise on Harry and that’s final.” Sirius looked up at him and stuck out his tongue.

  
“You’re no fun Moony.” He teased as he snuggled closer to his boyfriend. Remus wrapped his arms around Sirius and sighed contently.

  
“Yeah well, I’m sure we can figure out something else to do tomorrow before James and Lily get back.”

  
“Can we read that muggle fairy tale you read as a bedtime story again?” Sirius asked.

  
“Cinderella?” Sirius hummed his affirmation. “Sure Pads. That sounds like a great idea.” He would have to see if he could find the film to show them the next time Harry came to visit, though he suspected that Sirius would be the more enthralled of the two. He smiled at the thought and kissed the head resting on his chest. “Go to sleep Pads.” He whispered, “We’ve got another early day tomorrow.”

  
Sirius hummed happily and Remus closed his eyes. They laid there together, Sirius with his head on Remus and Remus gently stroking Sirius’ hair, and they listened to the baby sleeping soundly in his crib. They were together and they were peaceful, and they all slept soundly through the night, dreaming of the day to come.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you guys enjoyed this! I also just really like the idea that Lily is Very Loud when she wants to be. I don't own Harry Potter or anything associated with it. Happy reading!


End file.
